80-year-old Space Ibiza owner Pepe Rosello parties harder than you

2016 marks Space owner Pepe Rosello’s last season at the #1 club in the world. After 27 years at the helm, the 80-year-old White Isle legend is calling it a day and handing the keys to Space to the Ushuaïa group, who will no doubt be making some big changes.

The good news? Pepe’s going out with a bang. Dig through the Space Ibiza Facebook page now and you’ll find a stack of photos that prove just how much fun the octogenarian is having in his final season: he’s in the booth with Eric Morillo, he’s there hugging Carl Cox after his set, he’s pointing to the guy in the crowd wearing a “Gracias Pepe” t-shirt. He is, without rival, the coolest man in dance music right now.

It’s no coincidence that Carl Cox is ending his 14-year residency at Space the same year Rosello departs the club. “If Pepe’s not there, I am not there,” Carl told inthemix last year. “We grew up together, we’ve been all the way through this together, and we’re going to finish together. And I’m quite happy about that, because it means we leave the legacy of a club that made a difference.”

“We can walk away with that – the legendary status of what used to happen at Space when we were there – because no one else can emulate that, it’s not possible.”

Rosello took over Space in 1989 and – because Spanish authorities were cracking down on nightlife at the time – made Space a breakfast club that opened at 7am. It fast became the most freewheeling spot on the island: “Back in the 1990s, if you had a camera, you had to leave it in the cloakroom,” Cox told The Guardian of Space’s early days. “So if you wanted to have sex in the middle of the club, you could. No one would care. These were the ideals of the place: be flamboyant, be as free as you want.”

With Cox’s legendary Music is Revolution bash running every Tuesday until September 20, Pepe and Carl still have another two months of partying ahead of them. We look forward to the photos.